21 of Viola Davis's Most Inspiring Quotes

Whether she's doing an interview or accepting one of her many awards, Viola Davis has a knack for mic-drop moments. She tells it like it is and manages to inspire in the process. Will we get to hear another galvanizing speech come Sunday at the 2017 Golden Globes, where she's nominated for Best Supporting Actress? We'll see. In the meantime, take a look back at some of her most memorable quotes.

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1. "I believe that the privilege of a lifetime is being who you are, truly being who you are. And I've spent far too long apologizing for that—my age, my color, my lack of classical beauty—that now at the age of, well, at the age of 46, I'm very proud to be Viola Davis, for whatever it's worth." —during her speech accepting the 2012 Crystal Award for Excellence in Film

2. "The only thing that separates women of color from anyone else is opportunity." —during her speech at 67th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards

3. "You can't be hesitant about who you are." —Viola Davis to Playbill in 2004

5. "The one thing I feel is lacking in Hollywood today is an understanding of the beauty, the power, the sexuality, the uniqueness, the humor of being a regular Black woman." —in the October 2013 issue of Essence

Getty ImagesArt by Jen Chalet

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3. "They say to serve is to love. I think to serve is to heal, too." —at Variety's 2014 Power of Women luncheon

6. "The internal sexism within womanhood is very ­predominant in Hollywood, because we all want to be ­successful. There's a plug to it: You all have to be skinny! You all have to be pretty! You all have to be likable, because that's the ­formula that works. On an ­executive level. On a power level. And it's not always the same working with black people, because of the internalized racism. The colorism." —to Entertainment Weekly in 2015

7. "I see a lot of sexy women who are hard, cold, look like they have windswept hair and lip gloss and light makeup when they say it's no makeup. I work out five days a week, and I'm still not a size 2. So I wanted to see a real woman on TV. I wanted to see who we are before we walk out the door in the morning and put on the mask of acceptability." —during How to Get Away With Murder's For Your Consideration panel in 2015

8. "Do not live someone else's life and someone else's idea of what womanhood is. Womanhood is you. Womanhood is everything that's inside of you." —to BuzzFeed in 2015

Getty ImagesArt by Jen Chalet

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9. "You can't shine if you have two lines in the background as a bus driver. You can only shine if you're included in the narrative, and narratives start when you put pen to paper and you use your imagination. You just tell a story. That's all you do. You tell a story. You don't put any boundaries on it. It's infinite and that's the only way we can do what we do is that people use their imaginations so that we can be included in it." —toEssence.com in 2015

10. "Vanity destroys your work. That's the one thing you have to let go of as an actor. I don't care how sexy or beautiful any woman is. At the end of the day, she has to take her makeup off. At the end of the day, she's more than just pretty." —to The New York Times Magazine in 2014

11. "As Black women, we're always given these seemingly devastating experiences—experiences that could absolutely break us. But what the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls the butterfly. What we do as Black women is take the worst situations and create from that point." —in the August 2011 issue of Essence

12. "I don't have any time to stay up all night worrying about what someone who doesn't love me has to say about me." —during an interview with Oprah Winfrey

Getty ImagesArt by Jen Chalet

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13. "The black artist cannot live in a revisionist place. The black artist can only tell the truth about humanity. Humanity is messy. People are messy. Caucasian actors know that. They understand that. They understand that when you bring a human being to life you show all the flaws as well as the beauty. We, as African American artists, are more concerned with image and message and not execution. Which is why every time you see our images they've been watered down to a point where they are not realistic at all. It's like all of our humanity has been washed out. We as artists cannot be politicians. We as artists can only be truth tellers." —on The Travis Smiley Showon PBS in 2012

14. "Even when I get the fried chicken special of the day, I have to dig into it like it's filet mignon." —discussing taking smaller roles in The New York Times Magazinein 2014

15. "I would tell my younger self just be yourself—that who you are is good enough." —to People in 2014

16. "When I was handed Annalise Keating I said, she's sexy, she's mysterious, you know, I'm used to playing women who gotta gain 40 pounds and wear an apron so I said oh god, I gotta lose weight. I gotta learn to walk like Kerry Washington in heels. You know? I gotta lose my belly. And then I ask myself, well, why do I have to do all of that? I truly believe that the privilege of a lifetime is being who you are. And, I just recently embraced that at 51."–during her speech accepting the #SeeHer Award at the 2016 Critics' Choice Awards

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17. "Acting is not rocket science, but it is an art form.What you are doing is illuminating humanity."–to ELLE in 2016

Getty ImagesArt by Jen Chalet

18. "Living out loud is not playing Annalise Keating on How To Get Away With Murder, it's not being Amanda Waller in Suicide Squad, it's not getting an Oscar. Living out loud is living a life that's bigger than yourself. Living out loud is long after you're gone –you leave something on this Earth that's bigger than yourself."– at the Rape Foundation's Annual Brunch in 2016

19. "Every time I look at the [photo of myself as a] little girl, I always thought, Oh, that's a cute outfit.' But she was always hungry, she was always shy, she was always kind of in the background, but inside she had big dreams bursting. And the only thing I could think about is that saying, 'What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls the butterfly.'"–during her speech accepting a Hollywood Star in 2016

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20. "What keeps me in the business is hope, and that's the hope that women of color are also a part of the narrative, that our stories are just as potent, because we also have the power of transformation. We also have the power to be quirky, and sexy, and different, funny, heartfelt and all of those things."–at ELLE Women In Hollywood 2011

21. "I just look at women sometimes and I just want to ask them, 'Do you know how fabulous you are?' I look back at pictures of myself and I remember thinking, 'I was so fat when I was growing up. I was 165 pounds when I graduated from high school. I was a mess.' And then I look back at pictures of myself, and I'm like, 'You were fabulous.' I wish I would have known that then."–to ELLE.com in 2016

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